Enlisted at London on the 17th of March 1853.
Age: 19.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: None shown.
Wounded in action at Balaclava, where he rode with No. 4 Troop (T.S.M. O'Hara). See copy of the Troop muster roll in the 17th Lancer "Scrapbook." Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. Great Britain on the 8th of October 1857.
The musters for July-September 1858 however, show him as being "On Field Service" Detachment at Sholapoore" from September of the period.
Discharged, "by purchase", at Secunderbad, India, on the 22nd of March 1861 — by Authority of the C. in C. India. There is no indication if he remained in India or returned to England, or of the amount paid.
Served 7 years 75 days.
Conduct: "good".
In possession of one Good Conduct badge.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.
Can find no trace on the Mutiny medal roll.
1881 Census
3, Red Lion Square, Parish of St. George the Martyr, London.
The 1881 Census Returns show a man of this name, a Square Keeper, aged 53, born in Chertsey, Surrey, with his wife, Harriet, aged 54, a House Keeper, born in Chertsey, Surrey. An un-married daughter, 21, is also shown.
He has possibly been identified as "James, the Crossing Sweeper" in a book by Colonel Meinertshagen entitled Diary of a Black Sheep, from which this excerpt comes:
"James was a kindly old gentleman on crutches and people would give him a few pence on each occasion they crossed his swept path. This particular crossing-sweeper was a museum-piece, having been a trooper in the 17th Lancers at Balaclava. I was never tired of hearing his account of that ghastly mistake.
James did not complete the charge right up to the Russian guns as his horse was hit and fell, breaking the rider's leg and he was brought back by a comrade. But he spoke a lot about Cardigan, "A devil, but a fine leader", — and of Nolan, ""A real gentleman," to whom he often acted as orderly.
James was finally moved into hospital in a rickety old cart, and had his leg amputated without an anaesthetic in an icy wind in a wet tent. He would say, "Oh, Master Dick, it fair gives me the shivers whenever I think about it. The pain was summat awful..."
The facts, however, if indeed they are one and the same man, suggest that this is not true. Although known to have been wounded (but to what degree is not known and he is shown in the London Gazette "Casualty Lists" as being "Severely wounded") he was actually awarded the clasp for Inkerman, under which circumstances could not have been so. He also later served in India.
There is a possibility that Watts lost his leg from some other cause and used this to profit by in his stories of the Charge. No evidence can be found of his ever having been invalided from the Crimea, nor does he appear to have ever been a member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society or to have ever attended any of the veterans' functions but the muster rolls from October of 1854 through to March of 1855 show no trace of his ever having left the regiment for whatever reason.